


Kogitsune

by ArtemisiaNewgate



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 21:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18558133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisiaNewgate/pseuds/ArtemisiaNewgate
Summary: Shinoda no Kuzunoha married Senju Butsuma in the spring, in the midst of a sun shower. She caught mutters of kitsune no yomeiri and tucked her smile safely behind the shield of the ornamental fan that was her beloved’s first courting gift.





	Kogitsune

Their first child was born as the towering trees of Hi no Kuni lit the landscape aflame with their autumn leaves. He was a ball of fluff the colour of tilled earth, and when she cradled him close she saw his eyes were large and dark.

He was beautiful.

She’d known a lady of the bridge, once – and now long gone – whose eyes were just as large and dark, whose supports were carved of old, strong wood.

She smiled and whispered to him, “Hashirama,” and kissed his brow. Fur melted away, leaving soft, new skin, a shade of peach that would tan like his father’s with time and sunlight.

It would not do for him to have a tail when she presented him to his father, now.

 

Their second child was brought into the world as winter began to fade, frost relinquishing its icy hold over the landscape and leaving the air wet and cold. With pale fur and bright, clear eyes the colour of carmine, he took strongly after his mother.

He would grow to be more spirit than man, she thought, capable of traversing the old pathways and crossing thresholds no living human ought to cross, bestowed with the weighty duty of guiding lost souls and guarding the doorways between worlds.

“Tobirama,” she murmured into the fur of his brow, and skin as pale as her own revealed itself as a tiny, ice-bright chakra curled into her own, sleepy and content.

 

Their third child came when the sweltering heat of summer was at its peak, the grass dry and yellowing and cicada song filling the air. He was golden brown and more lively by half than either of his older brothers.

Kuzunoha, tiring quickly of his squirming, spared a thought to be thankful for the human housing that sheltered her from the blazing sun and the worst of the heat.

“Kawarama,” she sighed into his fur, a prayer of thanks for the roof over her head – and a hope that he would grow to be a shading presence rather than the relentless heat of summer.

 

Their final child was born in the midst of heavy rain at the tail end of spring, the world lush and green and soft in the midst of the downpour. His fur was peculiar, black interspersed with silver and a splotch of white on the left side of his face, from ear-tip to mouth.

 Outside, the heavens wept and the Senju Clan worked tirelessly through the rain, keeping things dry and stacking sandbags to wall off flooding and laying out boards as temporary walkways over deepening puddles and burgeoning streamlets.

“Itama,” she decided, smiling softly. He curled into her, pale skin speckled with peach, and yawned, tiny and sweet.

 

 


End file.
